HOWDY! My account says it's taken me 20 days to finally load a new chapter up so HERE I AM! First I'd like to thank fierynightangel and hellsmile89 for their reviews, thank you guys, reviews are balm for the muse.

And secondly I'd like to announce that this time, I did not take the poem from anyone ... it belongs to me, and only to me (random mind flash: Dori - I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine... yeah, sorry, my mind ... -.-) ... whereas Naruto absolutely doesn't.

Please enjoy reading!

...

Why are you crying child

or

Her pride

...

Sakura raced as the group leader through the woods. The mission was to retrieve a scroll from Wind country, but since it led through enemy territory, it was an A-class mission. Sakura – as the only ANBU next to Kakashi – had gotten the lead by Tsunade.

Sasuke was of course grumpy because of this … after all, she was just a weak woman, who hadn't grown up since last time. Well … if he liked to think that, he didn't even know that she was an ANBU … hell none of them knew. And it was better like that. Naruto would kill the Hokage and Kakashi would go on rampage – probably, it was sure though that not one of the two of them would be happy with it. Sai would only smile his fake-smile and Sasuke would probably ask her with whom she had slept for getting her rank.

Damned she was proud of her rank. Normally she was only a medic nin … that was when she was on group missions. On solo missions – which were quite often – she was The black Blossom. Feared and found in all the Bingo-books of missing nin. She had drunk a whole bottle of Sake with Tsunade when she had first found her picture in one of those Bingo-books.

Since Naruto had came back her missions had been pulled back a good measure, of which she was slightly pissed, but Tsunade had told her that she wouldn't give Sakura any ANBU missions, until she had finished her apprenticeship under Ibiki. Damn it … that could be a long time.

"Pause!" she signed and jumped down the branch to land at the foot of a tree.

"We're not even at the border and you're already tired?" Sasuke asked annoyed. "You haven't changed one bit … still weak and helpless."

Sakura took a deep breath to control the urge to hit the duck butt and instead took down her headband and changed into her gray coat. She looked at Naruto, Sai and Kakashi, who took their headbands down as well, and plopped them into her backpack before they all changed into something more discreet. Only Sasuke looked at them as if they were crazy. Sighing Sakura turned to Sasuke.

"Uchiha, I have to ask you to take your headband down and dress into something more discreet." She ordered.

"And why should we do that?" he grunted.

"As you already heard in the Hokage-office, Grass is no longer an ally of the Fire country, we will have to be able to pass as normal travelers while day and run as ninja during night."

"Nonsense … you're just afraid and too weak to defend yourself."

Sakura glared at him and the three other men carefully took a step forward in order to stop her if she would try to punch him.

"Uchiha, stop the attacks on my strength and do as I say. We can't afford to give Grass a reason to attack, not with Bird and Ame as their new allies – we won't give them any reason, which is why we will also be forced to suppress our chakra during day. Also we want to make it back alive. So just do as I say." She ordered.

"I refuse, Sakura."

Sakura glared at him. "On your knees, Uchiha." She ordered with an icy voice.

"What makes you think I'll do what you say?" he mocked.

But Sakura only pulled out a scroll before making a sign and took a katana out, as she unsheathed it. It gleamed glory-fully in the moonlight.

"Nothing, Uchiha. I will execute you. Not listening to your superiors means betraying the village … in your case it's the second time. I have full allowance to execute you right here and now. Run and believe me I will catch you." She answered icily.

"Sakura-chan … don't he's a brother…" Naruto tried.

"He's not a brother, Naruto. Brothers don't kill each other …" she reminded him of Sasuke killing him and Naruto sighed defeated.

"She's right … Naruto." Sai answered and placed a hand on his shoulder, leaving out the usual nickname he had for his teammate.

Only Kakashi wasn't convinced and stayed where he was – his eyes were fixated on the sword Sakura had pulled out of the scroll.

"Sakura … the information you have is classified … where did you get it?" Kakashi asked.

"I am the apprentice of Morino Ibiki, the man who knows almost everything … and who knows everything about ANBU, Kakashi. Me getting information as such is nothing too spectacular." She lied smoothly.

"Lie." Sasuke smirked. "You bloody lied. Now admit it … you slept with him? Was it good, Sakura-chan? And since when are you my superior?"

"Since I'm fourteen, Uchiha." She ripped down the pink cloth that covered her ANBU tattoo. "For you to know, I'm ANBU since I'm fourteen. Kakashi step aside, you know as well as I do that he broke it the second time. And he is long no team mate anymore … team mates don't kill each other … and good god they don't rip each other apart … and don't say you weren't ripped apart … I was the one to put you back together."

Kakashi stepped aside. "She's right."

Sasuke looked at Sakura. "You can't kill me, Sakura. I still have a mission." He was about to turn away, when Sakura laughed out.

"Your mission … killing your brother you mean?" he stopped and turned his head slightly. "No need, Sasuke-kun. I already did." She laughed again. "And god was it good. The blood of his whole body sprinkled on me, when I peeled of his skin – little by little, just to heal it again and do it again, and again, and again."

Sasuke turned to her as well as the rest of the team. She only stood there, not losing her stance nor her cool composure as she told him what she had done.

"He lost his cool when he couldn't burn me … and when I broke every single bone in his body, shattered the bones of his limbs he cried and yelled … he cursed … and he sang like a bird, how else did you think I'd know all the information on the Akatsuki? Now, Uchiha, you will come back, give me your headband and dress discreetly." She ordered once more.

Ibiki groaned at the staples of paperwork on his desk. Why was it all so much? He read through another report and realized that it was one of his Lollipop's. He smirked … so the Uchiha had made problems. He had been extremely relieved that the duck butt had come back alive from the mission, but hadn't missed the immense tremors outside on the training grounds. He knew what his Lolly pop was capable off … and the Uchiha had very likely pissed her off to no end, seeing at how she had been training.

When she came back she growled something at him about looking in the folders about the descendant of somebody. He nodded – not really listening – and let her work … and work she did. After seven hours she returned into his office with eleven folders and set them down.

"Those are the ones in Konoha who don't have any background, so … they are possible targets for the Akatsuki …" she stated clearly. "Although … there are some things I should probably tell …"

He looked up at her and could see the utter confusion in her eyes as she pulled herself together again.

"First of all … and the most important one … six of the probable targets are … dead. And guess how they died."

"I guess you will be telling me, Lollipop."

"The first six targets are killed by our pentagram-killer."

He looked up. "The pentagram-killer murders the possible targets of the Akatsuki. Why are they all twenty?"

"It is Chinese believe that a human has three major stages of development. From zero to three you develop yourself, you learn to talk, to walk, that the person in the mirror is yourself … From six to nine you grow, you look after younger siblings, learn basics at school. From twelve to fifteen you develop from a child to a teenager, stop dreaming about Mr. Charming and step into reality. And from eighteen to twenty one you develop from a teenager to an adult."

"So then why twenty and not twenty-one?"

"I believe that the last year in this three-year-cycle is about manifesting what we are. So if the descendant would turn into the Key of Tihuta, then I believe it would be in the last year … meaning he kills them before they can turn into a deadly weapon. But … there is something … I'd like to know … it's more or less personal."

"What is it Lollypop?"

"Why do I not have any background?" She lifted up a red folder.

Ibiki was silent.

"I mean … even if there isn't that much to say about me … there should be my family, no? I mean, my parents died when I was four, so there had to something about them … but here I'm not even marked as their … daughter." She faded out as she took a seat still staring at the folder.

So it had dawned to her. He watched her reaction carefully, but until now he could only find more confusion. The Haruno's had been a powerful clan, no ninja though …

He watched her place the folder on his table along with the rest as she bowed to him.

"I will go now, Morino-sensei." She said quietly. "You should inform the rest about the findings …"

She turned around and walked out of the door. She was … silent, he realized. Realizing that she wasn't a Haruno had gotten her silent. She was … in fact, no body. Even the name Sakura was maybe not even her real one. She just reverted into a shy girl that was no one. It didn't feel right. This was a loudmouth konoichi, being silent because she didn't know who she was just wasn't right at all. He should tell the Hokage that she knew … maybe it would help.

"Why are you crying child,

There is no such thing as harm.

Love the sun that smiled,

Love the oven that is warm.

Forget the grief

You thought you saw.

Forget and leave,

To watch morning's thaw.

A life is yours to live,

And you are to run.

A heart is yours to give,

And no one is to shun.

So shush my child,

Why are you crying?

There is no such thing as harm."

She whispered as she sat on the Hokage monument.

Her coat was floating in the breeze. She froze … well, it was winter, that was not unusual. She looked over the snowy village. It was so merry, children were laughing, there was mistletoe hung up and the Christmas decorations were hung up. Bells rang and she could see the smoke of the chimneys lift elegantly up into the white sky.

She didn't remember anything … neither her parents, nor her adoptive parents. She only remembered life all alone.

"Damn it." She seethed. Where the hell was her background?

She shivered as she felt the cold snow under her booted feet, damn it, damn it, damn it! She was ready to punch a nice crater into … into … just somewhere! Her stomach growled, but she ignored it. There had to be anything … anything … anywhere … But there wasn't. She was a no body, she wasn't even Sakura … very likely.

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing here?"

She turned around to look into azure blue eyes. She averted hers quickly and sighed silently.

"Naruto … you know who your parents are, right?"

"Of course!" he beamed. "My father was the third Hokage, the yellow flash of Konoha, Minato Namikaze and my mother was Kushina Uzumaki."

"Hn." Sakura smiled. "I'm glad for you." And then she vanished in a swirl of Sakura blossoms.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? She's not? Who is she? Where'd she come from? What's she gonna do now? And where'd she go?

So many questions, await the next chapter with anxiousness, some questions will be answered ... some...

Peace and love,

~*chuppa-chupsz*~